After the car accident, I was gravely injured. I begged my wife, Susie Rogers, to take me to the hospital. Instead, her face darkened, and she ordered someone to lock me inside a sauna heated to 180 degrees.

The reason was simple: her brother-in-law, Chester Tucker, was scheduled for an appendectomy that day. To make sure I would not undergo surgery at the same time as him, she had me injected with a hundred coagulant shots.

No matter how desperately I pleaded for her to save me, she remained unmoved.

Ninety-nine needles pierced my body, each one intensifying the agony of my already severe injuries. The hundredth injection, she administered herself.

Looking down at me in my misery, she said calmly, "Chester has had a hard enough life since losing his wife. As his sister-in-law, I'm only looking out for him. You weren't satisfied with driving him overseas; now you even staged a car accident to get surgery before him?

"It seems I've spoiled you too much. That's why you dare to pull something like this.

"The doctor said that with the injections and the high heat, your pain and bleeding would be controlled. Once Chester's surgery is done, you can have yours."

In that moment, my heart turned to ash.

When Chester's operation succeeded, Susie burst into tears of relief and even set off celebratory fireworks to mark his 'new beginning.'

Later, as she watched him leave the hospital fully recovered, she finally remembered me and ordered someone to take me there.

However, before they could, her assistant called.

"The hospital has asked you to come and claim Mr. Lynch's…body."

A hundred needles jabbed into me, each one a fiery sting, blurring the line between life and agony. I was already hurt, but that…that was torture.

Heat washed over me, snapping me back to reality.

In the last second before the sauna door shut, I reached for my wife, Susie Rogers, clutching at her pant leg, desperate to stir the love we once shared.

"Susie, I swear I didn't do anything to Chester; you've got to believe me..."

Susie used to be my partner in everything: coming home to cook and clean with me, laughing as she recounted her day at the office.

I could not wrap my head around it. How could she do that to me?

The pain was getting worse, a crushing weight on my chest making it hard to breathe.

However, Susie might as well have been miles away, her voice distant as ice as she said, "You did this to Chester! He's frail and can't handle spice. Yet, you went and spiked his meal with mustard, setting off his appendicitis. He was just getting over his wife's death; you had no right to mess with him!

"The heat's supposed to help with the pain and the bleeding, or so the expert said. It's just a bit of pain; you'll be fine."

I looked down at myself through the haze, my body a map of wounds, still oozing blood, and I begged, "Susie, I'm dying here!

"Please, just get me to a hospital. I promise, once I'm patched up, I'll disappear. I won't get in the way of you and Chester..."

She wavered, almost giving in, but then the assistant burst in.

It turned out that Susie had personally arranged Chester Tucker's private jet, which had just arrived.

"He's bleeding out; hit him with more needles! Sew him up, but make sure he doesn't get to surgery before Chester does!"

Under Susie's command, a bunch of medics in masks and white coats rushed over, fumbling as they held me down.

They sewed up my wound right there and then, without a drop of anesthesia. The needle pierced my skin, adding to the agony of the car crash injuries, and I nearly blacked out from the pain.

Susie's face went ghostly white when she saw Chester, her heart aching as if it were bleeding.

Chester was a mess, tears streaming down his face as he cried in her arms, making her heart shatter into a million pieces.

With a voice choked by tears, Chester stammered, "Susie, I was so scared. I thought... I thought I'd never see you again."

Susie, ever the comforter, wrapped her arms around him and whispered soothingly, "Chester, I'm so sorry you were scared. However, I promise to always be here, right by your side. You won't lose me, ever."

There they were, right in front of me, clinging to each other with such tenderness, as if they wished they could melt into one.

After her sister's tragic death years earlier, Susie insisted on bringing her grieving brother-in-law, Chester, into her home. She was determined to care for him and stand by his side during the darkest time of his life.

I had been against it, but she had lashed out at me, saying, "What's the big deal? It's just one more person at the table. Chester's lost his wife, and it's hard for him to be alone. What if he gets too sad and does something drastic? Can't you think of anyone but yourself?"

Looking back, I realized it was all just a convenient excuse for their secret romance!

Right then, Susie's phone buzzed.

It was a call from Tania, Susie's grandmother.

"Susie, did Edward get into a car accident today? You have to be there for him; every second counts! Do whatever it takes to save him!"

Susie gave a half-hearted response and ended the call.

Chester, still in Susie's embrace, looked up at her with those big, sad eyes and murmured, "Susie, is Edward okay after the crash? You should check on him right away. Grandma really cares about him; you can't let him be hurt..."

However, Susie just pulled Chester close, brushing off the concern with a wave of her hand.

"Why worry about him? You're the one who needs someone right now, not Edward."

Yet, as my cries of pain filled the room, Susie's expression softened ever so slightly. It was as if she could tell my screams were not just an act.

She even started to question the so-called experts' opinions.

However, that doubt vanished as quickly as it came.

In a sly move, Chester stepped on my bloody, freshly stitched wound while Susie's back was turned...

The pain was too much, and I screamed.

Susie spun around, her curiosity piqued by the noise, and in that critical moment, Chester yanked his necklace off and hurled it to the ground.

Then, with tears streaming down his face, he bent over me and sobbed. "Edward, I just couldn't stand seeing you in so much pain. I wanted to comfort you. How could you destroy the lucky necklace Susie gave me..."

Susie looked at him, her eyes brimming with pity, and quickly reassured him, saying, "Don't worry about it. It's just a necklace, right? I'll get you a hundred more just like it!"

Then, she turned toward me, her voice sharp with anger. "Chester was just trying to be nice, and you repay him by breaking the necklace I gave him?

"I should've laid down the law before we got married. That would've taught you a thing or two about respect!"

I watched Susie, ablaze with anger for Chester, and for a moment, I could not even tell who she was married to.

Three years of marriage, and she would rather take another man's word over mine.

My heart felt like it was being ripped to shreds, piece by piece.

"If you must thank someone for our marriage, thank Chester. Seriously, if you didn't look a bit like him, would I have said yes to your proposal?"

I felt my face drain of color.

When Susie and I tied the knot, the whole capital's most influential people buzzed about how she was head over heels for me. I was the prince charming in her love story, they said.

I had dreamt up that perfect little family scene a million times: Susie, me, and our future kid, all smiles and happiness.

However, it finally hit me like a ton of bricks. To Susie, I was just a stand-in. Chester was the guy she had always been crazy about. She had just been biting back her feelings because he had gone and married her sister.

That gut punch, that raw, scalding pain of betrayal, was worse than any physical wound.

"Susie, my stomach's killing me... Can we take a break?"

Chester, all curled up in Susie's arms, looked up with pain written all over his face.

Susie's worry was instant. She whisked Chester out of the sauna, leaving me there, a wreck on the floor.

Heartbreak had a way of making a person long for oblivion. Once I saw Susie for who she truly was, the final spark of resistance within me died.

The sauna was cranking up the heat, and I felt like I was being slow-cooked.

I was choking, suffocating from the heat.

It felt like my brain was about to burst, sending a jolt through my body.

If Susie had not dragged me out of the hospital, I might have recovered by then. I did not deserve the agony. I had to get out.

With every ounce of strength, I pushed against the floor, dragging myself across the burning tiles to the door, banging on it with hands slick with blood.

"Somebody help... I think I'm having a stroke! Please, get me to a hospital..."

Every time my hand slapped the burning iron door, it hissed and puffed out smoke like a mini dragon. It was not until my hand was a blistered mess that someone on the other side finally snapped, saying, "Cut it out! Ms. Rogers took Mr. Tucker upstairs to chill. If you bug them, you're toast!

"She patched you up and tossed you in the sauna to dial down the pain and keep the bleeding in check. Don't even think about jumping the line for surgery!"

I experienced what happened when the mighty fell, and everyone started kicking while I was down.

Susie had tossed me aside like a worn-out sneaker, and even her nanny felt bold enough to give me a kick.

I knew they were all scared of Susie, but they were terrified of the head of the Rogers family.

"Mrs. Rogers thinks the world of me. If anything happens to me, you won't get off easy for just standing there!"

The nanny went pale as a ghost when I said that. She knew the Rogers family head put me on a pedestal, and if things went south, they could not handle the fallout.

However, she did not dare let me out on her own. She bolted upstairs to report the situation. "Ms. Rogers, Mr. Lynch says his body is heating up in the sauna, which is currently at 180 degrees. Should I rush him to the hospital for surgery right away?"

Susie was hanging out with Chester in her room, and the mention of my name made her twitch with annoyance. "That sauna doesn't even go past 104 degrees."

Maybe worried about covering her bases, she thought for a second and then said, "Check the sauna temp..."

Before Susie could finish, Chester cut in with his own two cents.

"Susie, I have extremely sensitive skin. I can’t handle anything over 104 degrees Fahrenheit. You set the sauna for me, right? So why is it at a scorching 180 degrees now?"

Susie's words got caught in her throat as she glared and snapped, saying, "That loser is just trying to get sympathy. Without a tough lesson, he'll never learn. Just ignore him!"

With that, she kicked the nanny out.

The nanny, who got the door slammed in her face, trudged downstairs. She stopped by the sauna, muttered a few curses at me through the door crack, and stormed off.

My white clothes were soaked with blood. Finally, my pleas for help were met with silence.

The heat in the sauna was nearly cooking me alive.

The blood from my body was seeping out, trickling through the door's cracks.

Staring at the blood pooling beneath me, I realized I was running out of it fast.

Eventually, my body started to wobble, and I plunged into an endless darkness.

Hours later, a servant stumbled upon the bloody scene and gasped.

He was about to rush upstairs to report when Susie's irritated voice cut through, saying, "Go and tell Edward that I'm giving him one chance to 'fess up. If he apologizes to Chester and takes care of him until he's better, I'll consider sending him to the hospital."

The servant, pointing to the blood leaking from the door, stammered, "Ms. Rogers, Mr. Lynch... He...he hasn't made a sound for half an hour. We've been knocking and shouting, but nothing."

Susie paused, surprised, but quickly masked it with a sneer. "Why the panic? I know him better than anyone. He's just faking it. He's figured out that his little act isn't going to work on me anymore.

"If we let him play dead now, without making him feel the sting of this lesson, he'll just keep disrespecting Chester."

The servant's knees buckled, her face drained of color. "However, I heard him say that he was having a stroke..."

Chester, cradled in Susie's arms, put on a show of weakness. "Honestly! He knows I'm not strong. I've been pulled back from the brink so many times. He's the picture of health. Why would he jinx himself? Is he making fun of me?!"

Seeing Chester sob in her embrace, Susie's resentment toward me deepened.

"Clearly, we haven't punished him enough. He's still bold enough to taunt Chester with his life!

"He's trying to trick me with his schemes!" Susie's voice was icy with rage.

"Tell him that if he plays the life-threatening card again, I'll make sure he suffocates in there!"

The servants were visibly shaken; none dared to utter a word.

"What are you? Statues? Go and tell him!" Susie snapped at them, her temper flaring.

"You should check the sauna room!" The servants barely breathed, their voices quivering.

Susie tensed up, then let out a mocking laugh. "Putting on an act again? Like that shameless man wouldn't do anything for a bit of pity!"

Susie was so certain because I always owned up to any mistake whenever she was upset in the past.

With no dignity left, I would silently pick up the pieces after she and her brother-in-law had their fun.

"The sauna's thermostat must be busted; it has hit 180 degrees!

"It’s so hot that Mr. Lynch’s body couldn’t take it. He’s melted into blood and water… there’s nothing left of him…" The servant paused before finally revealing the grim truth of my death.

"What?" Susie shot up from her seat, her voice sharp with shock.

“He’s always looked healthy! How on earth could he be dead?”

Her face darkened with fury, like a storm cloud ready to burst.

"How could the temperature controls I set mess up like this? What did he ever do for you that you'd go this far to tick me off?"

With a swift kick, Susie sent the chair flying and hissed, saying, "Move it! I'm going to see for myself what sneaky game he's playing now!"

However, as she booted the sauna door open, a blast of scorching air gushed out, sending everyone stumbling back in alarm!